House of Hope Online

May 14, 2023

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Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms!  This is a day to honor our mothers and give glory to God for them.  The Bible teaches us to honor our parents and respect them.

Deuteronomy 5:

 16 ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you on the land which the LORD your God gives you.

Proverbs 23:

 25 Let your father and your mother be glad, And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.

I have seen firsthand in my family the importance of motherhood, as I watched Nancy over the years love and raise our children.  Our children love her so much, and their love of the Lord, more than anything, allows Nancy to rejoice.

But I especially want to honor my mother today.  Laura Amelia (Cercone) Giuliani is now deceased.  She died at the age of 62, about nine months after Nancy and I were married.

The word that the Lord gave me as I sought Him for Mother’s Day is “perseverance.”  My mom was the embodiment of perseverance.  She had a difficult life with little education.  Her marriage to my father was arranged and ended prematurely due to his death from alcoholism.  She told stories about how difficult that disease was on him, how she had to find drops of beer from the empty bottles in the basement to try to satisfy his need.  His disease made her a widow, a mother of three living in poverty.  I was two years old at the time.  A few years later, she sacrificed to care for my bedridden grandmother, which allowed us to live in my step-grandfather’s house, even after my grandmother died.

When I think of those days and the hardships on my mother, I could just cry.  But she persevered through those days.  We shared some tears together, but she never gave up, never abandoned us.  She never quit on our family, and we enjoyed some good times as a family because of her – just the four of us.  She taught me to be honest, more than anything else.

And so, the word for Mother’s Day is perseverance.  You don’t become a Godly mother without the Holy Spirit providing perseverance.  A mother perseveres through pregnancy and the childbearing process.  A mother perseveres through child-rearing and all the challenges that come with it, especially in today’s world.

But most of all, a mother perseveres in love and presides over the family’s love for each other.  Mothers persevere and contend for love within their family. She sets the tone for how the family treats each other.

The word of God teaches us that the tribulations that my mother faced, and the trials all of us face, lead us to perseverance.  Further, God says there is a connection between perseverance and the hope that resides in us as Christians. 

Romans 5:

 1 ¶ Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;

 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Get that – Godly hope does not disappoint because the love of God is in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Romans 8:

 24 For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for why does one also hope for what he sees?

 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.

I love the expression “with perseverance we wait eagerly.”  Verse 25 tells us that hope is waiting eagerly with perseverance.  In fact, the Hebrew word for hope means to wait, to be patient, to trust.  So, when my mother persevered through trials, and when we persevere in anything, there is a building of proven character that comes forth.  The proven character brings about hope, and we wait eagerly for that which is not seen.  In doing so, we implicitly trust God to do it.  We hope in Him; we wait on Him.

But the point I want to drive home today is that God is the One who gives us perseverance and encouragement.

Romans 15:

 4 For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.

 5 ¶ Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus;

 6 that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is also the One who makes possible our mother and all the blessings that flow from her, including the blessing of perseverance.  Let us glorify Him today as we honor our mothers.  “And let her rejoice who gave birth to you.” (Proverbs 23:25)

Let us pray:

Father God, thank you so much for our mothers.  We lift her up today and give you glory for all she means in our life.  As Paul wrote in Romans 5, we exult in our tribulations, knowing they bring us perseverance, proven character, and hope.  We trust you in our trials, as our mothers did, and we thank you for perseverance, encouragement, and hope. Today, may she rejoice who gave birth to us.  In Jesus’ name, we pray.  Amen.